Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed lawsuits against five cities – Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Denton and Elgin – ordinances that aim to eliminate enforcement of low-level marijuana possession offenses.

Paxton alleges the cities’ actions violate state law and the Texas constitution. The lawsuits ask the courts to declare the ordinances void and order the cities to fully enforce state drug laws.

The ordinances were passed after being approved by voters in local ballot propositions. They prohibit police from making arrests or issuing citations for misdemeanor marijuana possession in most cases.

However, Paxton argues the Texas Local Government Code forbids cities from adopting policies not to fully enforce drug laws. He also says the ordinances violate a section of the Texas Constitution stating that city ordinances cannot conflict with state law.

  • @[email protected]
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    85 months ago

    Seriously someone save some of that razor wire for this idiot. He’s finally going to have his day in court come April 🙏

  • FartsWithAnAccent
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    4 months ago

    Texas thinks it gets to ignore the federal government, so why should the cities listen to the state government?

    • @[email protected]
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      25 months ago

      I mean if a atf agent walked into any legal state they can make all the arrests they want to my knowledge at least if I’m wrong please correct me

      • @[email protected]
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        105 months ago

        You may not have seen the recent drama with Texas refusing to allow the feds to patrol the border.

        • @[email protected]
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          05 months ago

          Yes, but they are correct. Cannabis is a schedule 1 drug at the federal level, same as heroin.

          There is nothing legally preventing the federal government from arresting everyone in every state who possesses or sells cannabis. It isn’t relevant that cannabis is legal recreationally or medically at the state level in most of the country

          We’re just hoping that the federal government continues its discretionary policy of looking the other way. But, much like Roe, uncodified rights have a recent habit of disappearing overnight

    • Jaysyn
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      5 months ago

      Despite Abbott’s treasonous mewling, they aren’t preventing the Feds from cutting down razor wire & that was all the SCotUS judgement declared.

            • @[email protected]
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              45 months ago

              Just gonna point out that at least he provided sum sort of substantiation for his claims, which is more than most do. Even if you don’t agree with the viability of the reporting of the source, and I admit you might have a point as I did not watch the video, but he did provide something. You want to counter him, counter him. Tearing down someone’s source is an invalid argument, it doesn’t illustrate that you are correct, only that, in your opinion, they are wrong. Those two things are not the same.

              • FartsWithAnAccent
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                5 months ago

                Citing a shitty source isn’t really much better than providing no source.

                “I know for a fact that Bat Boy is carrying Hillary Clinton’s lovechild! Source: The National Inquirer”

                See?

                • @[email protected]
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                  15 months ago

                  Opinions I guess. For me, it shows some sort of effort. Enough care to actually attempt to support themselves and make an actual argument. It doesn’t mean they are right, never said it did. It is about the art of crafting a well-formed argument. If the only thing you can do is attack their source, you have forfeited the argument because it is a bad-faith retort. He says that it hasn’t happened, then provides what he considers to be a credible enough source. You want to retort him, find a source that is at least equally credible, and provide it. It is discourse and proper form. Everyone needs to learn a bit about it and become better citizens to each other. Maybe if we did we could avoid so many messes.

  • @[email protected]
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    295 months ago

    This is so fucking weird. Weed is a no-brainer win, even among conservatives. Why double/triple/quadruple down on this stupid policy

    • Bakkoda
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      5 months ago

      They would look weak. It’s not about policy it’s about being tough on “insert any issue” and letting the fanbase lap it up.

      The easy part about running on an anti-whatever policy is that if you keep people on drip fed fear and anxiety it hits a lot more people than it ever would in a content society. A miss isn’t a loss because it just falls on deaf ears for the people who are gonna vote that way anyway. If you are on the other side it’s a hit no matter what, you either agree or are disgusted which inches you just that little bit closer to the fear and anxiety point they ultimately want you at.

      Reactionary politics are instant dopamine for everyone.

  • @[email protected]
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    255 months ago

    Something that’s really important to understand about Republicans in Texas is they believe in small government so long as it’s their government. In theory, city and county governments should supersede state policy in the same way state policy should supersede federal policy per their defenses. However, that only works so long as city and county policy are in lockstep with state policy. Travis County and Austin almost always have some suit coming from Paxton. All of their was made super evident during 2020 COVID when the state wanted cities to decide things unless you were in Bexar (San Antonio), Travis (Austin), and a few others because those counties took COVID seriously based on their data. Here’s an early escalation where Paxton makes it very clear that the only authority cities have comes from the state executive.

    • @[email protected]
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      55 months ago

      They believe they should be able to do whatever they want, and the law should protect them. They make small government or large government arguments as necessary to achieve that goal. There is no integrity here, so we shouldn’t look for it. And we shouldn’t act like pointing out their hypocrisy is productive or will persuade them - they’re aware of their contradictions and they don’t care

  • @[email protected]
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    165 months ago

    Ah yes. The criminal Ken Paxton always fighting the good fight! Thanks Ken for again showing how out of touch you are with the modern world.

    • @[email protected]
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      75 months ago

      He should. And then corruption happened, and he got away with it.

      Reminding everyone that a record number of democrats crossed the aisle to acquit him on the biggest smoking gun issue they could have impeached him with. Every progressive in Texas should know their names and remember them when it’s time to vote.

      You can read all about it here, and article 4 is the smoking gun: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-impeachment-vote/

  • Yewb
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    175 months ago

    But joe rogan said Texas was a paradise!